The Brewery Theatre Company is back for what promises to be another cracking night at the Kendal art centre with an evening of monologues in the Studio tonight (Friday, 8pm) and tomorrow.

Penned by Kendal's own writing talent Kevin Matteson, the productions launch what BTC hopes will be a regular event in the Studio to try out new writers, new actors and new directors.

Under the heading A Long Way To Paradise, the four monologues include The Last Rocky, performed by Paul Wilson-Bonner, revolving around Adrian Rocky' Sylvester, who has played the field and enjoyed every minute of it. But now aged 40, finds he's dying of cancer, and decides it's time for reflection. In Paul's last role at the Brewery he was the 15-feet giant Gluteus Maximus in Jack and the Beanstalk.

Old Laundry theatre manager Hilary Pezet performs Charlie's Web. Hilary plays Trudy, the 21-year-old mother of baby Danny, who has been married for nearly two years to Phil, a likeable and dependable young man. However, it's Spike, Phil's best friend, whom she truly loves, and when Spike returns home after 18 months overseas, the old feelings she has been desperately trying to hide take no time in resurfacing.

In For Love, Lynn Gibbons plays Pauline, a 50-year-old woman who works on the breakfast buffet of an international airport hotel. She has just received confirmation of her divorce, but it is little more to her than a distraction because she has never fully recovered from her sister's suicide 25 years earlier.

The final piece sees Maurice McCarthy in the spotlight as Brian Harrington-Smythe in The Butterfly Collector. He is a non-executive director of a kitchen installation company, who feels that the knives are out for him. He never really has got on with young people even in his twenties, and now the modern age seems overwhelming.

THE award-winning Middle Ground Theatre Company presents one of the classic tales of rural love with two high profile television actors in its cast.

Former Emmerdale star Frazer Hines, and another famous face who was in the Yorkshire TV soap, Stephen McGann (he of the brothers McGann) team up in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, in a new adaptation of the Dorset love story, at Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, June 12/13/14 (8pm, with a 2pm matinee on the Saturday).

Multi Story Theatre Company presents a half-term treat tomorrow (Saturday) in East o'the Sun, West o'the Moon, suitable for children aged five and above.

A Norwegian fairy tale given a Multi Story makeover, it is a physical storytelling theatre show in which two performers, Gill Nathanson and Bill Buffery, animate a whole host of characters humans, animals, trolls and winds using their own physical and vocal skills along with props, costumes, projections and shadow-play.

The one-hour show starts at 2pm. However, before that there's a chance for children aged eight and above to get involved in a storytelling and writing workshop with the cast between 12pm and 1.30pm. Box office 01539-725133.

May 29, 2003 12:00